ZBasic
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | 1980 |
| Founder | Andrew Gariepy, Scott Terry, David Overton, Greg Branche, Halbert Laing |
| Headquarters | Tucson , United States |
| Products | BASIC compiler and integrated development environment |
ZBasic is a compiler for the BASIC programming language that comes with an integrated development environment, initially launched by Simutek based in Tucson, Arizona, in 1980. Created by Andrew Gariepy, Scott Terry, David Overton, Greg Branche, and Halbert Laing, it was compatible with several platforms such as MS-DOS, Apple II, Mac, CP/M, and TRS-80. ZBasic facilitated cross-platform development by allowing the same source code to be compiled on various systems without the need for changes. During the late 1980s, ZBASIC was distributed and supported by Zedcor.
In 1991, the MS-DOS edition was acquired by Harry Gish and 32 Bit Software from Dallas, Texas, who upgraded it to include support for both 16- and 32-bit machine code as well as VGA and VESA video standards. Concurrently, Zedcor concentrated on the Macintosh segment, renaming their product FutureBASIC.
Features
ZBasic includes device-independent graphics capabilities, enabling compiled programs to operate across multiple display resolutions and color configurations, including text mode. Early releases for MS-DOS supported graphics up to the EGA standard.
It offers binary coded decimal arithmetic with precision reaching up to 54 digits.
The INDEX$ construct consists of an array of strings with variable lengths intended to optimize sorting and searching operations.